I used to think that giving gift cards for Christmas, birthdays, graduations, and other special occasions was little more than a cop-out. After all, gift cards require no special thought on the giver’s part and show the recipient exactly how much you spent on them — both of which went against everything I’d ever been taught about giving a present.

But now that I’m older, wiser, and have tons of people on my gift-giving lists, I’ve changed my tune about gift cards. They’re just so easy and convenient, especially since they can be ordered online and almost every national retailer offers them. I mean, you can get gift cards for everything from Starbucks coffee to iTunes music and just about anything else you can think of!

Let’s face it: most people especially junior high/high school/college students prefer to select their own products, and gift cards allow them to do just that. Save yourself the time and hassle of traipsing through the mall looking for that “perfect present” that will only end up being returned anyway. Get gift cards instead!

Kids across the country will be returning to school in the next few weeks, loaded down with a bunch of new supplies such as backpacks, notebooks, binders, USB memory sticks, and more. And of course with kids being kids, they’re likely to lose at least a few of those items before long.

In order to protect your children’s expensive items from loss or even theft, I recommend labeling everything. There are cool little Dymo labels that you can print from your computer, or you could even just put a strip of masking tape on the item and write your child’s name on it in permanent marker.

Either way, it’s important that you have some way of identifying your child as the owner in case anything happens. After all, you don’t want to have to replace these school supplies unnecessarily!

I don’t write about regular grocery products too often, but since I haven’t had a lot of extra spending money to buy “fun” stuff, I figured this is as good a time as any to talk about some of the items that are in my shopping cart week after week. One of these is Johnsonville Beddar with Cheddar Smoked Sausages.

Johnsonville Beddar with Cheddar Smoked Sausages are basically very big, thick sausages with chunks of cheddar cheese sprinkled throughout. I usually buy this product during the football season, and like to grill them up and serve them on hot dog buns during the game. They go great with all the trimmings, a handful of potato chips, and a cold beer.

What I like about Beddar with Cheddar is the fact that there’s just the right amount of cheese in each sausage. There’s enough so you can actually taste it, but not so much that it overpowers the flavor of the sausage. Also, these are better than typical cheese dogs because they don’t contain that liquid processed cheese, so they’re not as messy.

Johnsonville Beddar with Cheddar Smoked Sausages cost quite a bit more than regular hot dogs (like Oscar Mayer wieners or whatever), but the taste is definitely worth the extra money. After eating these things, it’s really hard to go back to regular hot dogs!